Bidfident for turnaround contractors
Estimating software for turnarounds
Turnaround tenders are big, and the trade rates, plant hire and inspection quotes all have to land in one number. Bidfident prices exchanger bundles, valves, flange joints and pump changes by number, with platers, pipefitters and mechanical fitters at their own rates, a bundle puller charged for its own hours, NDT quotes side by side, and the crane and supervision by the week.
Enter your email and Bidfident sends you a sign-in link. New companies start with a starter rate library. Who runs Bidfident, and what it keeps about you.
Sound familiar?
The bundle puller charged for every crew hour
Pulling a bundle takes the crew two days, but the puller is only on it for a few hours. Price it for the crew's hours and the tender is too high. In Bidfident a line's plant can have its own hours per unit, so the puller is charged for its own time.
A turnaround in a thousand rows
Hundreds of valves, flanges and exchangers, and finding one line means scrolling. In Bidfident Ctrl+F finds lines by description, code, area, unit or trade, and sorting by any column puts the biggest costs on top.
Rates that move before the award
Turnaround tenders can sit for weeks before award, and by then the rates sheet has moved on. In Bidfident a submitted tender keeps the labour and plant rates it was priced with, and version history compares any saved version with now.
How Bidfident fits your work
The bundle puller for its own hours
Give the puller its own hours per unit, say 6 hours a bundle against the platers' 48. It's charged for its own time, not the crew's. Leave it blank and it runs for the crew's hours.
Platers, pipefitters and fitters at their own rates
Each trade carries its own rate from the rate library, and every line takes its trade's rate. Change the plater rate once and every bundle and tray line follows.
Inspection and NDT quotes side by side
Enter each inspection and NDT quote. The lowest is flagged and carried unless you choose another, and a declined quote is ignored.
Crane, supervision and tool store by the week
Put the 90 t crane, supervision and the site cabin in as weekly preliminaries linked to the job duration. If the turnaround grows to 3.5 weeks, they all follow.
Night-shift bolting at a line's own rate
Flange joint make-up on nights gets its own rate on that line only. It's marked in purple, so the enhancement is easy to find when the tender is checked.
Every cost code totalled
The cost report totals the turnaround by cost code under each division, filters by area or cost type, and copies as CSV when the client wants a breakdown in their own spreadsheet.
Worked example: a three-week turnaround on a process unit
A made-up job, priced in Bidfident: 27 lines of your own work, 4 subcontract packages and 5 preliminaries items over a 3-week programme. The 5 lines this page talks about are listed one by one, and the rest are added up in one row. It's the same job you can open as an example project in Bidfident, so every figure below matches it.
To open this job in Bidfident: sign in and set up your company in the UK, then on the Projects screen, under Example project, pick "Shutdowns and turnarounds" and "Turnarounds" and press Add example project.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Pull, clean and refit exchanger bundles, 6 nr
| £21,240.00 |
Column tray inspection and repair, 2 nr
| £8,200.00 |
Flange joint make-up and gaskets, night shift, 180 nr
| £21,060.00 |
Replace control and isolation valves, 24 nr
| £62,400.00 |
Pump and mechanical seal changes, 8 nr
| £27,264.00 |
22 more lines of your own work
| £110,613.60 |
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Inspection and NDT
| £17,800.00 |
Hydrojetting of exchanger bundles
| £12,600.00 |
Relief valve bench testing and certification
| £5,720.00 |
Insulation strip and reinstatement, allowance
| £6,600.00 |
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Turnaround supervision
| £12,600.00 |
All-terrain crane hire, 90 t
| £34,500.00 |
Tool store and site cabin
| £1,950.00 |
Night-shift supervision
| £6,270.00 |
Mobilisation and demobilisation
| £5,230.00 |
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Own work
| £250,777.60 |
| Excluded lines, not counted | £36,880.00 |
| Subcontractors | £42,720.00 |
Preliminaries
| £60,550.00 |
Direct cost
| £354,047.60 |
Contingency
| £28,323.81 |
Overheads and profit
| £38,237.14 |
| Subtotal before the bond | £420,608.55 |
Bond
| £4,206.09 |
Insurance
| £4,206.09 |
Tender total
| £429,020.73 |
VAT, for reference
| £85,804.15 |
See it in Bidfident
Coming soon Ask your estimate anything. Claude first, ChatGPT to follow. See how it will work
Questions
Can plant run fewer hours than the crew?
Yes. Give the line's plant its own hours per unit, such as a bundle puller at 6 hours a bundle. Leave it blank and it runs for the crew's hours.
Can I split the turnaround by unit or area?
Yes. Tag each line with a WBS area or a location and group the sheet by it, with a subtotal for each. The cost report filters by area too.
If the plater rate goes up, does a turnaround tender I've sent change?
No. A submitted tender keeps the labour and plant rates it was priced with, so a new plater rate or a dearer bundle puller doesn't move a turnaround price you've already sent.
Can I price bolting by the flange and bundles by the bundle?
Yes. Units are free text, so flange joints, column trays and exchanger bundles each go in by number (nr). Bidfident doesn't convert between units, so price each line in the unit its rate is in.
Can I carry scaffolding, insulation and NDT as separate subcontracts?
Yes. Each package has its own quotes side by side on the Subcontractors tab, with the lowest flagged and carried unless you choose another. Carry an allowance for any package still waiting on quotes.
Does it build the turnaround programme?
No. Bidfident prices the work. It doesn't plan the labour or track time. The turnaround's length in weeks drives the weekly preliminaries, such as the crane and supervision.
Does Bidfident work with Claude or ChatGPT?
Not yet, but it's coming. You'll be able to connect Bidfident to your own Claude or ChatGPT account and ask about your estimates in plain English. The answers will come from Bidfident's own figures, so they match the estimate. It will use the account you already have: Claude first, ChatGPT to follow.
Price your next turnaround tender in Bidfident
Enter your email and Bidfident sends you a sign-in link. New companies start with a starter rate library. Who runs Bidfident, and what it keeps about you.